A good British summer always brings it's rewards and this years sloe crop is certainly proof. I don't think I've ever seen so many! Just take a look at the pics below.

We didn't need to venture far this year while picking, in fact we only needed to visit one of our secret Blackthorn's to get more than enough for this years gin/vodka. Probably collected 5 or 6lb and there's plenty more on the tree... Just in case!

Going to stick to the usual recipe for 2013, last year I backed off on the amount of sugar as I was finding it very sweet - perhaps my tastes are changing? I think this made a far better tasting gin. The taste of the sloes and gin wasn't over powered by the sugar meaning you could really taste the flavour of the sloes, also the vodka had more of a punch which in turn gave that fantastic warm feeling on the way down... Great on a winters day!

There's a sure sign that things aren't improving economically this year especially for pubs and clubs and we're definitely feeling the knock on effect. Gigs are certainly a bit thinner this year. After talking with some other guy's from popular covers bands, they're being hit as well, so it's not just individual bands being knocked back. I'm hopeful most venues are seeing this as a time to clear out some of the crap that's managed to leak out onto the circuit.

I read a post on Ross' Blog where he has said the same things, as we have less gigs this year, I think it has an effect on us as a band. We seem to have got into a rut musically and the drive to be the best has undoubtedly slipped, what hasn't helped but is totally understandable is that Dan our drummer is looking for a job on the wind farms which could take him away at short notice for a few weeks at a time. The concern is he might not be available for gigs already booked and we could end up cancelling with very little notice to the venue. Again this whole situation could in a roundabout way be attributed to the current economic downturn, however I won't go in to that bit... Dan must do what he needs to do to pay the bills, we all know that and support him.

Just finished and interesting project for the local Braintree Taxi Association, the committee there needed a site to share information on a public and private level. They wanted it to be clean, uncluttered and easy to navigate with extra functionality for private members. The site is now complete and launched and you can take a look by visiting www.bd-ta.org

After starting FireBrush Design in 2007 I decided this year to shut the Limited company down and continue on a small and select basis as an individual trader. Trying to fight my way through an exceptionally deep and prolonged recession, competing with companies that will build you a site for less than £50, I went back into full time employment with a large globally recognised company - nice! Web work still comes in and I just take the small manageable stuff, I also tend to pick and choose who I work for, normally going with existing clients or new business where I've been recommended.

So, I'm going to put up a couple of pages on this blog to describe what it is I offer and take down the main site, meaning that [fire_kb] will become the new main site on the FireBrush domain. I'm certainly not looking for any big projects that aim to be the next Amazon, but just enough to keep me going and interested!

Ok, so... I came back to WordPress after saying it wasn't as flexible as Joomla. And I still stand by that statement.

The thing that really clinched the deal was the fact that there are few really good iPhone and iPad blogging apps available, allowing the user to edit and create articles right from their portable tablet or phone. This alone is worth gold and a major reason for me to come back and experiment with WP again.

Well, the last batch of sloe gin I made for Christmas has well and truly been drunk! Everyone who tried a tipple of the 2011 brew has complimented on such a great flavour too especially for such a young bottle. I only allowed it eight weeks before decanting and drinking.

I made a point of taking some to my local shoot as most of the members there also make their own and are quite adept at it. Feedback there was a resounding thumbs up of which I took as a pass for this particular recipe which can be found here.

I've been using a Marshall 1960tv [Tall Vintage] loan cab at our studio over the last few months, all I have to say is its awesome! It makes my Marshall 30th Anniversary head sound fat, warm, chunky and full of rich Marshall tone! Fantastic!
For you muso's here is a little techy background on this cab...

The Marshall 1960TV Cabinet has an angled front; 4 - 12" Greenback speakers; and a warmer, thicker sound than the 1960A. This 100W, mono, 16-ohm cabinet is 3 inches taller than a standard 1960A 4x12 cabinet which results in well defined mid range and a lowered resonant frequency for more prominent lows. The 25W Greenbacks are less in your face than the 75W Celestions in the 1960A. Although not a reissue it was never offered in the past this cab recreates the classic look and tones of yesteryear.

Hello, welcome to my wiki, bloggy, techy, geeky blog thing that will hopefully contain useful info... bit like a knowledge base but only for stuff I need!

I thought I would return to WordPress for this project as it has a Wiki plugin and some very clean templates, I also like the idea of a lightweight CMS with ease of use when editing. However, after plenty of experimentation I'm finding the menu systems a little too basic and the flexibility is just not there but there seems to be plenty of 'plugins' etc around to expand, it's just a question of trawling through the thousands that are out there and trying them until I find the one that does the job.